Vending machine



April 1930. F. MILLS 1,752,750

VENDING MACHINE Filed May 4, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet l IMZZIZZET' QJ 2 WApril 1, 1930. F. MILLS 1,72,750

VENDING MACHINE Filed May 4. 1929 2 Sheets-Shed 2 Patented Apr. 1, 1930UNITE n: 'srATEs-i PATENT oFF c I I ,I'RED L. MILLS, OEOAK PARK,ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MILLS NOVELTY COMPANY, OF

CHICAGOQILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF. ILLINOIS vnnmus MACHINE Application"med-my 4,

. This invention relatesto vending machine r and more particularly to-such machines adapted for use at -homes,- apartment buildings and-like.places fordispensing staple ar- .ticles,sthe invention-being in thenature of an improvementor supplement to. the invention of my co-pendingapplication, Serial r .NO736O5366, filed-May 4,1929.

Asset forth'in said co-pendingapplication,

'10 the machine requires for the operation thereof theruse ofboth--akey= and a coin and due to the factthat the keys will be in thehands? of only certain known, persons, the responsibility can'be tracedto them-in-case a slug 1s tuse-d instead of a bona fide'ficoin tooperate the -machine. In this way thepossibility of I loss. to. thevendor through the use of slugs 'inoperating the .machine isreduced to aminimumorcompletely eliminated. It may be,

however, that whenthe machine is used at the rear'of an apartmentbuilding it" will be pationized" by a number of-individuals livingint'the apartment, each ofwhom-would be providedlwitha *key, andlwhi'leit would be possible .to confinethe responsibility for the a useofzslugs-to those who wereprovided with 1 keys,:it wouldnotbepossible tofix the blame upon a particular -;one of; such: individuals 7 1; sinceanyone ofthenimight operate the ma- 7 which of them inserted the slug.In accord- 1 .uance with :the present invention the coin boxforreceivingthe coins usedzin operating the machineisxdivided into a number ofdifferent compartments, and-4a device is pro- Vld6d f0l" directing thecoinsinto one or another of said compartments. according to: the=.=part-i'cular key-used. r

1;" In this scheme of operation; the 5 keys fur,- nished thedifierentpersons who .areto patronizei the 'machine will-differ, preferably 7 ias to ilengthyand the individual'keys willserve to move aswiveled hopper.or like means into V:registration with a.-c,ompartment of the coin. boxparticularly associated with the key em-' -;=;ployed.:: In this way, ifa slug is found in 1. {any particular'compartment of the .coin'box;

"1 theL(responsibility:'for=inserting it may be wsutraced tothe3-individual -whohas the 'key'p WhICh" servesto' arrange the hopperinxpos'n a chine and it' would not bepossible to tell 4929. Serial No.360,367;

compartment.

- Other objects and advantages of the inventionawill be apparent as itis better understood from the'following description, which, takenin'connection with the accompanying drawings, discloses a preferredembodiment thereof. 1

Referringto the drawings,

Fig, 1. is afront elevation of amachine in which my invention isembodied; certain parts thereof beingbroken'away, for convenience inillustration;

machine;

' on the plane 3-:3 in 'Fig. 1;

1 Fig. 4 is a perspective view'of the latching mechanism and I Fig. 5 isa view of the key employed in conjunction with a coinfor-operatingthemachine, said view showing in dottedlines how theactuating lugs on difl'erent keys may be varied in length for thepurpose hereinbefore explained. a

Themachine, as thusillustrated, comprises a casing 21 in which there isa series of compartments 22, these: being arranged in the particularembodiment/(shown in two tiers and eachcompartment .being adapted tocon-.tain a singlepackage of the commodity to be sold. Eachcompartmentisprovided with a door 23-whichhas a central glass panel 24through whichthepackage 25 may be viewed. Each door isequipped withalatch, whichis shown indetail in Fig. 4;, said latch comprising a bellcrank rmember 26 which is pivoted at 27 to a frame part 28, one arm 29of said bell crank extending forwardly; through a slot 31 inthe front-32of the casing "and the other arm-3301" said bell crank extendingupwardly and carrying a stud 34 the end thereof,- said studbeingnormally in engagement with the side :of a bar 35 shown frag.-mentarily in said Fig. 4 andmorefully in Figs. 1 and 2. A-laterallyextending lug 36 is provided upon said upper arm 33 of the bell crankand is adapted to be normally disosed'in notch "37 in' a' keeper'38secured to the interior of thedoor bymeans ofrivets Fig. 2 isa front-toback section ofzsaid .Fig. 3 is a plan View taken substantially 39.Springs 41 secured at one end of the latching lugs 36 on the bell crankmembers 26and at the other end to the side of the casing serve to holdthe studs 34 of the latching members against the side of the bar 35.

Said bar 35, as best shown in Fig. 1, is provided with a series ofnotches 43 in the edges thereof, said notches being adapted to be successively brought into registration with the in studs 34 of the, severallatching devices, as

pivoted at 47 to a supporting plate or bracket 48 on the interior of thecasing, is provided to hold said barin raised position, said controlmember Orfinger being provided with a hookedportion 49 at the lower endthereof Which is urged toward said bar and into one of the notches 45 bymeans of a spring 51 which is wound around a stud 52, being secured atone end as indicated at 53 and the 9 other end thereof bearing against alug 55 on the upper end of said member 46, urging the latter inclockwise direction about the piv- 0t 47. Said member 46 is providedwith an arm 56 extending laterally fromthe upper 35 end thereof into acoin chute indicated by the 1 y fder 63 and to engage a member 69pivoted at 71 to an upright 72 and connected by a link "referencecharacter 57. Said coin chute leadsupwardly to a coin slot 58 and a stud59 is provided in the lower part of said coin chute to obstruct thepassage of a coin 61 when the latter is dropped into the slot. The

position of the coin,as shown in full lines in Fig.1, is such that it isheld between the arm 56 of the member 46and a bolt 62 of a key lock 63,the bolt being adapted to be moved 1 toward the left insaid Fig. 1 bytheturning of a key in said lock in manner which will be readilyunderstood. Such action tends to move the coin toward the left in saidFig. 1, y w

jturningthe member 46011 its pivotto cause the same to disengage the bar35, permitting thelatter to drop until re-engaged by the, l member 46which enters the next notch 45 aft= er the coin has passed down the coinchute, as shownin dotted lines in Fig. 1.

. lower left in Fig. 1,"itbeihg-noted that the ment. The" notches forthecompartments above aresimilarly'arranged in staggered re i Thefirstcoin inserted causes the bar to drop only sufficiently to permitactuation of the-latch for the compartment shown at the lationship andsuccessively decrease in length so that one compartment after anothermay be successively opened, and after the bar is dropped to thelowermost position, or at any time for that matter, an authorized personhaving access to the machine through a nornially locked side door 63 mayraise said door to the uppermost position, thereby locking thecompartments which have been opened, it being understood that they wouldbe refilled before being locked.

It will be observed that it requires the conjoint use of a key and acoin to actuate the ;member.46 so that in case a slug is inserted itwill be known that it was used by someone having possession of a key. Inorder that the particularperson using the slug may beidentified,however, I provide adevice shown in the lower part of Fig. 2and in Fig. 3, whereby the coin or slug will be directed into oneoranother of a series of compartments 65 provided in a coin boxindicated generally at 66, according to the particular key used,

the keys furnished to different persons authorized to patronize themachine being of different length and each adapted to actuate the devicejust mentioned in such way as to direct the coin or slug to a particularcom- .partment which may thus be identified with thekey used. The key,which is indicated.

by the reference character 67, is provided with a lug 68 at the endthereof, which may be of, varying length, as indicated by dotted linesin Fig. 5,the inner end of the key being adaptedto protrudethrough thelock cylin- 73witl1 an arm 74 rigid with a swiveled hopper75 which ispivoted to said upright 72 and has a flaring mouth portion 76 into whichthe lower end 77 of thecoin chute 57 extends, said hopper narrowingtoward the compartments 65 of the coin chute, whichcompartments.correspond in number to the number of commoditycompartments provided in the casing 21.

1A counter-weight 79 is provided on the arm/74 to hold the hopper75normally in registration with the passageway 78 at the left in Fig. 2,the lower end of the hopper being moved toward the right to a greater orless extent according to the length of the key employed and thusbrou ghtinto registration :with any one of the passageways 78, the particularonebeing determined by the length of thefilug 68 onthe key.

It isthought that the invention and many iofitsattendantadvantages willbe understood from the foregoing description, and it will be; apparentthat various changes may be-madewin the formyconstruction andarrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention, or sacrificing all of its material advantages, theconstruction hereinbefore described being merely a preferred embodimentthereof.

I claim:

1. A vending machine comprising a commodity container, locking mechanismthere for requiring the use of both a key and a coin for the operationthereof to unlock the container, a coin box having a plurality ofcompartments therein, and means operable by the key to direct the coinused in the operation of said locking mechanism into one or another ofthe compartments in said box according to the length of the keyemployed.

2. A vending machine comprising a commodity container, locking mechanismtherefor requiring the use of both a key and a coin for the operationthereof to unlock the container, a coin box having a plurality ofcompartments therein, and means operable by the key to direct the coinused in the operation of said locking mechanism into one or another ofthe compartments in said box according to the particular key employed,the lock being adapted to receive diiierent keys.

3. A vending machine comprising a commodity container, locking mechanismtherefor requiring the use of both a key and a coin for the operationthereof to unlock thecontainer, a coin box having a plurality ofcompartments therein, and means operable by the key to direct the coinused in the operation of said locking mechanism into one or another ofthe compartments in said box according to the particular key employed,the lock being adapted to receive keys of difierent length.

4:. A'vending machinecomprising a com modity container, lockingmechanism therefor requiring the use of both a key and a coin for theoperation thereof to unlock the container, a coin box having a pluralityof compartments therein, and means comprising a swiveled hopper operableby thekey to direct the coin used in'the operation of saidlockingmechanism into one or another of the compartmentsin said boxaccording to the particularkey employed, the lock being adapted toreceive different keys.

In Witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name to this specification.V

FRED L. MILLS.

